Families' sex shop win

FAMILIES are celebrating after a bid to open a sex shop just yards from a primary school was rejected, but theatre bosses in Stockport are now fighting plans for a different adult store - next-door-but-one to the historic Plaza theatre.

FAMILIES are celebrating after a bid to open a sex shop just yards from a primary school was rejected.

But theatre bosses in Stockport are now fighting plans for a different adult store - next-door-but-one to the historic Plaza theatre.

There are already three sex shops in Stockport town centre, plus an Ann Summers store, and there are calls for the growth in the number of adult stores to be halted.

News of the latest bid to open another in Stockport comes after councillors voted unanimously to refuse a licence for a store selling sex aids and magazines to open in Edgeley.

Simply Pleasure, which recently opened Europe's biggest sex shop, in Oldham and also has a store in Rochdale, wanted to open a new store on Castle Street, Edgeley's main shopping street, which is surrounded by houses and yards from Our Lady's primary school, a church and another primary school.

Stockport's licensing committee turned down the application on the grounds that the location was inappropriate.

A recent survey revealed that Stockport has the lowest annual fee for sex shop licences in Greater Manchester and the council has received a flurry of applications to open adult stores.

Enough

Stockport charges just £608, compared to a fee of more than £5,000 charged in Manchester and Tameside.

The growth in the number of adult stores in the town has prompted calls for the council to restrict the number of licences. Edgeley councillor Sheila Bailey said: "There are already three and that is enough.

"It's important for town and district centres to be geared towards family shopping."

A spokesman for Stockport council said: "We have a duty to consider each application on its merits."

The latest application from a company called New Harmony is for a sex shop in a former toy store next-door-but one to the Plaza Theatre, close to Stockport's main bus station at the heart of the town centre.

Stockport Plaza Trust vice-chairman Ray Preston said: "We feel strongly that we don't want a sex shop right in the centre of Stockport, particularly on the walking route from the bus station to the railway station and the Plaza.

"We get large numbers of young children at the Plaza, particularly for matinees at the weekends and for our pantomime.

"We don't want them compelled to walk past a sex shop."

Councillors are expected to rule on the latest application on September 2.